Robert
Irvine,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, February 26, 2009
Let me first start off by saying yes I am one of the HSBC card holders that this was done to. I am not really upset about the WHAT but the HOW. The way this was done has determined how I deal with companies in the future that use HSBC as a lender. There is a fundemental flaw in your argument. In that this was not your money. They are extending you credit and yes per the agreement they can adjust the credit limit or even close out your account at any time. They DO NOT need a reason. But they took the "any time" too far IMO. In that they put the cart before the horse and cut the limit deciding to tell the people after the fact, although I still have yet to receive my "letter". As I said I really don't care that my limit was cut because I know it is not my money, but how it was cut. They did this about 2 days after my statement went out. The statement still showed the old limit, so it "appears" that you have all of this open credit. For people that do not access their account on-line they would have no idea this happened until either a)They got declined for a purchase(very embarassing), b)They receive their next statement(where they could be over the new limit they didn't know they had), c)Get a letter that may or may not come. Anyone who is all of the sudden charged over the limit fees because of this, I think have a very good case for a lawsuit(and this is rare for me to say). Writing all of those people may help you vent, but in reality it won't go anywhere. Call me a pesimist if you must. The biggest thing I can suggest is to close out any and all HSBC accounts all together. They run several "store branded" cards also, I can't really name them here because it would probably be redacted but just search for "HSBC store branded cards" and you will see several major retail chains. After all if they want to go out of business, then why not help them out. The same day I found out about the cut, and before I closed it out. I was receiving 2-3 calls per day from their sales department trying to sell me additional "services"...now that's FUNNY.
William
Waipahu,#3Author of original report
Wed, February 25, 2009
Kathy- When you say that you have a printout of your payments, I am assuming you mean the printout available from the HSBC website. I also hope that you have kept all of your monthly account statements from HSBC, as well as the monthly bank statements for whatever account your HSBC payments were made from. Here's the deal. While a printout of your payments from HSBC, themselves, might be nice (since it IS from them), remember that it IS their website. As such they can always claim that they made mistakes in their own reporting to you, and that the printout is not accurate. These days, I would not put something like that past them. Your monthly HSBC account statements are another story. Since these include much more blow-by-blow detail, such as amounts and dates of each transaction, including any late charges to your account, they would be much more hard-pressed to attempt lying after the fact about the information contained within them. Your bank statements serve as verification of the payment information contained within the previously-mentioned documents. If you have these things I have mentioned, I would then contact your union representative to request that they either provide you a written statement regarding HSBC telling them that you were late in paying your account "many times", or that they would be willing to so testify in a court of law, if necessary, or both. If you have/get the things I've mentioned, I would then seriously consider hiring an attorney. At the moment anyone from HSBC knowingly communicates a false statement about you (or your conduct) to a third party, in a manner that could serve no purpose other than to lower your reputation and/or credibility in the eyes of the person(s) to whom the falsehood is communicated, he or she has committed "Defamation of Character" against you. An attorney will be able to determine whether or not you have (or can obtain) sufficient evidence to pursue a defamation lawsuit, and whether the defamation against you was slander, libel (generally considered the more serious of the two) or some combination thereof. Good luck with your situation! William
Kathy
Florissant,#4Consumer Comment
Wed, February 25, 2009
I had one of thier cards since 2001. When I had been off work due to surgery, I called them to say my payment for that month would be late.(2 weeks) When I went to activate my new card 3 months later, I found out they closed the account right after I made the phone call to them. I asked what was going on. Thier response to me was "We can close your account when ever we want to without any reason" I was floored! I contacted my union, Because this was a Unioncard, They said they checked into it and that hsbc told them I had been late in paying many times. It just so happened that I had a print out of all payments ever made to them and only the one that I originally called about in the first place was ever late. I am still working on getting my union, IFCW to take away thier endorsement of this lying company.
Kathy
Florissant,#5Consumer Comment
Wed, February 25, 2009
I had one of thier cards since 2001. When I had been off work due to surgery, I called them to say my payment for that month would be late.(2 weeks) When I went to activate my new card 3 months later, I found out they closed the account right after I made the phone call to them. I asked what was going on. Thier response to me was "We can close your account when ever we want to without any reason" I was floored! I contacted my union, Because this was a Unioncard, They said they checked into it and that hsbc told them I had been late in paying many times. It just so happened that I had a print out of all payments ever made to them and only the one that I originally called about in the first place was ever late. I am still working on getting my union, IFCW to take away thier endorsement of this lying company.
Kathy
Florissant,#6Consumer Comment
Wed, February 25, 2009
I had one of thier cards since 2001. When I had been off work due to surgery, I called them to say my payment for that month would be late.(2 weeks) When I went to activate my new card 3 months later, I found out they closed the account right after I made the phone call to them. I asked what was going on. Thier response to me was "We can close your account when ever we want to without any reason" I was floored! I contacted my union, Because this was a Unioncard, They said they checked into it and that hsbc told them I had been late in paying many times. It just so happened that I had a print out of all payments ever made to them and only the one that I originally called about in the first place was ever late. I am still working on getting my union, IFCW to take away thier endorsement of this lying company.
Kathy
Florissant,#7Consumer Comment
Wed, February 25, 2009
I had one of thier cards since 2001. When I had been off work due to surgery, I called them to say my payment for that month would be late.(2 weeks) When I went to activate my new card 3 months later, I found out they closed the account right after I made the phone call to them. I asked what was going on. Thier response to me was "We can close your account when ever we want to without any reason" I was floored! I contacted my union, Because this was a Unioncard, They said they checked into it and that hsbc told them I had been late in paying many times. It just so happened that I had a print out of all payments ever made to them and only the one that I originally called about in the first place was ever late. I am still working on getting my union, IFCW to take away thier endorsement of this lying company.